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My Coniontis mini-darkling calmly walks around the edge of its enclosure as darkness approaches, antennating and exploring crevices. It is almost constantly moving, except when eating or vibrating (likely a courtship behavior). The three small ground beetles it lives with are much more secretive. Watching them when I can't sleep makes me tired. Whenever disturbed by my clumsy attempts at maintenance, they run for their lives and remain motionless for many, many minutes in the "safety" of their crevices. And I don't have a red flashlight (apparently invisible to insects), so using dim normal lights (also apparently ignored by insects) is quite a strain on the eyes.

Yes, I know there's a beetle section, but I can't cut this topic into two.

I liked the blog post as well. For years I was interested in the things in others backyards. Now my eyes have been opened to what is in mine. Plus just because I see species frequently here in Ky, doesn’t mean the folks out west do. So it would be a benefit to collect and attempt to culture for others to enjoy. One man’s “garden, ground beetle” is another’s exotic Coleoptera.

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I've always dreamed of intercepting cool insects from distant worlds once they are blown to ports and make landfall. It has already been done with the newly arrived Luridiblatta, though that one probably wasn't blown.

Too bad I am so busy I cannot afford to do much with invertebrates. Otherwise, I would be giddily shipping the local footspinners to roachcrossing and stuffing my jars with Gibbifer californicus (which seems to be mostly absent from California, and must be found in other states).